Most of us know life in the larger Jewish communities of
Israel or the United States. Even in England, South Africa
or Australia the Jewish communities are composed of
thousands of people.

In Italy, the Jews are a very small minority in a Catholic
country. The Italian media is known as pro-Arab and
antisemitic and for making Israel look very bad. The
Italians are now undergoing a wave of Moslem immigration and
conversion to Islam, and this is in the most Catholic
country in the world and they are not altogether happy with
this. Here is the story of Moshe Chaim Polco, a 19-year old
Jewish youth from Genoa, who is very experienced with
antisemitism. Unlike his Jewish friends, he reacted by
strengthening his path to Judaism.

From our vantage points, we often do not sense what is going
on among the nations of the world. Perhaps here, from the
perspective of a young Italian Jew, we can learn a bit about
Italian Jewish life today and come to appreciate the deep-
seated antisemitism that persists as an eternal
parasite.

It was staff of Media-Set-Italia-Uno that photographed the
shocking lynching of Israeli soldiers that took place in
Ram'alla some months ago. Those gruesome pictures circulated
quickly and stunned the world. The picture of the Arab
waving his bloodstained hands was published in the most
respected newspapers in the world. But despite the
international scoop, the Italian news agency was reprimanded
by its directors in Rome, and the photographers were
actually brought back to Italy, along with even the Italian
competitive news staff (not before its reporter was wounded
by a stone thrown by a Palestinian).

These events are not mentioned for naught. Consider the fact
that the Italian media is invariably extremely pro-Arab. In
interviews that the scoop-finding journalist gave, he
admitted that the gory pictures were taken without
permission from Palestinian publicity people, and their
publication throughout the world was much to the dismay of
the Palestinian Authority. His acknowledgment revealed the
usual arrangement that prevails between the Palestinians and
the Italian media: the latter photograph only what the
Palestinians allow. The photos of the lynch deviated from
the norm because of a reporter who decided, for the sake of
objectivity, to give the press a fair glance at reality for
once (unfortunately under such tragic circumstances).

Incidentally, as a result of this revelation, many media
consumers in the world began questioning whether the
Palestinian Authority had made similar arrangements with
other agencies (and directors) from other countries.

But this cooperation is not in conformance with other
aspects of Italy's socio-political situation. A huge wave of
Moslem immigration has been flowing into Italy in recent
years, and Islam is spreading there in a way that is
frightening, at least to the Italian right.

Most surprising is that many of the Italian media's
directors and senior journalists are Jewish. Until a few
months ago, the Dela Serra Courier of Milan, was
edited by a Jew. That is the biggest newspaper in the
country. The second largest newspaper, La Stampa of
Torino, employs a known pro-Arab slanderer by the name of
Igor Man, but one of the senior journalists, Fiama
Nirenstein, is Jewish. In electronic media, until a few
months ago the director of Channel One in Italy was a Jew
named Gad Lerner. The director of Channel Two is also a Jew
named Maimon.

Even though Jews work in the media, it is of significance
that many of them, like a large portion of Italian Jews,
feel more Italian than Jewish. We felt this ourselves when
we visited the community of Genoa not long ago. We
participated in a certain occasion organized by community
members. The "hachnosas orchim" was chilling. Those
people also related that way to other Jewish guests who
visited the kehilla -- no warmth, no common
denominator, no Jewish solidarity.

Everyone Against the Jews

No matter which side wins the upcoming elections, the result
will be anti- Jewish or anti-Israeli policy. The right is
fascist, the left communist. The left may not be antisemitic
but is anti-Israeli, and obviously it is easy to move from
anti-Israeli to antisemitic. "We have to be afraid of this
too," says Moshe Chaim Polco, age 19, of Genoa.

The Opposition leader in Italy, head of the largest rightist
faction "A Strong Italy," Silvio Berloscuni, has not spoken
out against Jews, nor can it be deduced anywhere from his
platform that he is antisemitic. But extreme rightist
leaders with whom he works do this for him, such as Bosi,
leader of the "Northern League" party. Bosi, who serves as
head of a party whose very basis is racism, is a self-
proclaimed antisemite. "He would like all the Arabs in Italy
(around half a million) to be expelled. He hates all
foreigners, including Jews," says Moshe Chaim Polco. "Now he
does not speak against the Jews because elections are coming
up, but until less than a year ago he said it outright. It's
funny how people change faces very fast."

Take the party of Pini for example -- "National Unity" --
with which Alexandra, the granddaughter of Moussolini is
affiliated. This party has waged a war against Islamization
of Italy. "National Unity" gets 20 percent in polls, and up
until 20 years ago Pini would salute with an upturned hand
(the Nazi salute). In fact today, close to elections, even
Pini is careful not to speak out against foreigners, but
again, there are people around him who do the work for him:
Bipi, the cardinal of Bologna ("Italy needs to close all its
borders to any non-Catholic who wants to acquire Italian
citizenship. We have to gradually expel non-Catholic
citizens, so that Italy will be pure in its Catholic
heritage.").

Pini is quite careful, for example, about respecting
Austrians, who are considered his "political colleagues."
"Of course, he did not change his views, only his words,"
says Moshe Chaim. Nowadays, the rightist leaders are more
"cultured." Racial slurs against the Jews can be found in
the stadiums, where extremist right racist groups, neo-Nazi
groups, and fascist groups gather.

"The truth is," says Moshe Chaim Polco, "all politicians are
bad to the Jews." Actually, none of the leaders of the right
are really antisemitic, says Moshe Chaim cynically, only the
voting citizen.

Whom will the Jews vote for? In Moshe Chaim's opinion, the
Jews will vote for Berloscuni, "because in the last
elections the Jews voted for the Left and they are fed up
with the joke they have played on us. They want our vote,
but they never want to help." But Moshe Chaim is not sure
about this either, "because there is no collective opinion
amongst the Jews regarding elections."

Judaism is Like a Fleeting Shadow

I met Moshe Chaim Polco in Genoa. He is an Italian Jew whose
experience with antisemitism pushed him to strengthen his
Judaism. Moshe's father is an Italian Jew and his mother was
an Israeli (she passed away). Moshe and Rachel, his 17-year-
old sister, speak fluent Hebrew. He is studying computer
engineering. In the future, he hopes to make aliya
and to study Torah. Despite the difficulties he and his
sister have, he tries to remain optimistic, although cynical
comments creep into his words from time to time.

When Moshe was in 11th grade, the religion teacher (In Italy
they study Christianity in school) told the 12th grade
students that in the school there is a Jew named Moshe. It
is a large school, with 1200 students, and it is not that
everyone knows each other. Later, on their holiday, a group
of 12th grade students met Moshe in the street, spat at him
and told him that he should go back to his country. "I'm
Italian," he smiles sadly. This was the first time that he
experienced blatant antisemitism. Moshe told his non-Jewish
friends about the incident, and they approached those
students and asked that the incident be the first and last
time.

"They learn a little Tanach and, along with
everything else, a little Judaism. When the teacher was
talking, from what I understand, he mentioned that there is
a Jew in the school, and that was me -- because there are no
other Jews in the school besides me."

That group of students stopped bothering him, and for about
a month and a half the incident was forgotten, if only
because it was one incident among many: many times before
this he had experienced animosity, but it was only on a low
flame. Even on the first day of school, three years
previously, after the ten o'clock break he found his desk
full of pictures of swastikas. The teacher helped him erase
them. "This kind of nonsense always happened to me, foolish,
disturbed kids, who don't know what to do," he defines these
activities. Sometimes he thinks to himself about why this
happens to him, and that he has to find some reason, because
it has happened.

A month and a half after that episode, on a Friday, Moshe
Chaim came to school and saw all of his friends standing
around his desk and trying to get him out of the classroom.
They did not want him to see and be insulted. But he saw the
swastikas drawn on the desk and the big letters: "Jew,
you'll burn," and in smaller letters words like "Miser to
the gas," and "wood to the fire."

"These are words they would write some years ago about Jews.
These sentences are common in Italy, words that you find in
the stadium, on walls of houses, in abundance. This is not
something that someone invented and kept to himself,"
explains Moshe Chaim. "I was shocked! After a few minutes
the teacher came in, and her words upset me even more. This
teacher is very Catholic, and probably deep down she always
wanted to ask me, `Why don't you become Christian?' Now she
found the opportunity. She turned to me and said, `Maybe the
problem is not with these children, but with you, that you
don't want to be like everyone else. Here everyone is
Catholic, so you should be Catholic. When you are in Israel,
everyone is Jewish there and you should be Jewish. Maybe
it's because you go to the synagogue, you don't write on the
Sabbath. You should start to write on the Sabbath, eat meat
with the others!'

"Not to write on Shabbos -- maybe in Israel this seems
normal, but here it is incomprehensible. They have no
concept of what Shabbos is to a Jew. What do the students
see? They see that I am different. Everyone writes, but I
don't write! There are days that I don't go to school, and I
don't have to bring a note from my parents because it's a
Jewish holiday. When they don't go to school, they must
bring a note from their parents. They always see the
different things, the privileges, so to speak. Because I am
different, they think that I have it coming to me, that
eventually someone will not understand me."

Everyone Heard This? How Did They React?

"Yes, she said it in front of everyone. Here in Italy, they
don't relate to teachers or to what they say with respect,
but here her words brought serious responses from teachers
and students. Other teachers backed her up and said that I
am different."

When it became clear who the students who "decorated" Moshe
Chaim's desk were, they also discovered that they were the
same group who had attacked him a month and a half before.
Now the issue came before the principal: whether to take any
steps against them or not. In the end it was decided to do
nothing.

Italy is a bureaucratic country; they have forms for every
occasion. So if we're dealing with a school, at every
parent/teacher meeting, there is also a protocol. In the
protocol of the parents' meeting it was written that they
had deliberated about the problem of Moshe Chaim Polco, and
it was also written why they had not done anything about it:
The school does not take any responsibility for the action,
since these things happened to a boy who is "different."

"They actually used the word divreso-different,"
emphasizes Moshe Chaim. "My teacher gave me the protocol to
read. That got to me, and I stopped going to school. I
decided that I wanted to transfer to the Jewish school in
Milan. I published a letter in the school newspaper,
describing my situation and the plots against me. As a
result, some students organized a meeting with all the
students in which they decided that if the principal does
not take action against the guilty parties, there would be a
student strike: they would sit outside of the classrooms.

"After half an hour, the principal made an announcement:
what had happened was not nice, and whoever did it will be
punished. That put an end to the strike before it even
started, but those students never did get punished. I
continued attending the school, because my class persuaded
me to come back."

But in the End, Did You Change Schools?

"Yes. All the teachers said that because of me the school
had earned a bad reputation, since the incident was written
up in Italian newspapers. In Italy, if something bad
happens, who is guilty? Not the one who committed the
offense but the victim, the one who caused the bad
reputation.

"They did not expel me from school, but they made my life
unbearable. The teacher of Italian started scheduling tests
only on Shabbos. I had a hard time with him, because Italian
law says that I am permitted not to write on Shabbos, but it
does not say that it is forbidden for the teacher to give
exams on Shabbos! I finally protested and was granted the
possibility of completing the year without losing out,
despite the tests. When I finished, I said, `That's it,
enough, I'm fed up.' Along with me the school administration
removed another six students from my class who had been
disgusted by the episode. In the class only 12 students
remained. I felt good that others also expressed solidarity
and said, `Enough, this is intolerable.'"

"Ebreo" -- 1. Jew; 2. A Curse

The square above Genoa's shul is named after the
city's rov who was killed in the Holocaust, Rav Riccardo
Pacifici, Hy"d. Rav Pacifici was deported along with
about 300 other Jews in November of 1943. Under the plaque
bearing the name of the square and after whom it is named, a
swastika was sprayed. Moshe Chaim Polco erased it.

Around four years ago, Moshe Chaim's grandfather's
tombstone, located in the Jewish cemetery in Acquiterma in
the Piamonte district, was desecrated, together with other
tombstones. Additional grave desecration took place around a
year and a half ago in Rome's Jewish cemetery.

Genovese Jews are not bothered by these episodes at all.
Recently a meeting of the G8 took place in the city (a club
of the eight most developed countries in the world, Italy
being a member). Even as the city was being spruced up for
that prestigious meeting, the front of the bakery that sells
bread to the city's Jews was sprayed with a swastika. For
two weeks, in the Piazza Della Victoria, the city's main
plaza, there was a bazaar, under the political auspices of
the TriColor party, one of the many names of the party of
Pini the extreme rightist. The Italians went shopping in the
bazaar, even though one of the booths sold militant
merchandise, such as uniforms and weapons.

In the wake of the new intifada in Israel, the Genovese
local newspaper Courierra Mercantila (which is sold
together with La Stampa), published an antisemitic
letter, reminiscent of the Dark Ages. The rav of the
kehilla, Rav Yosef Mamiliano, sent both newspapers a
letter in response, in which he wrote that not every letter
that reaches the editorial board has to be published.

A constant guard, 24 hours a day, by the police and
Carabiniari (the national militia) is stationed around the
shul, which recently underwent general renovations.
But this is not the reason for the patrol. Rav Mamiliano
says, "Because of the situation in Israel, the police
offered it to the kehilla, even though there had been
no threats or anything like that. This patrol is paid for by
the State."

The Jewish community of the Italian regiona of
Liguria, whose capital is Genoa, has 400 Jews listed.
Besides 60 of these who live in La Spezia, all the others
are residents of greater Genoa.

In four years, a governmental museum will open in the
synagogue, documenting Judaism in Genoa.

In Genoa, there are some very wealthy Jews who are a
presence in the local economy. For example, a large dairy in
Liguria belongs to two Jewish Genovese families. The
director of the Genovese branch of one of the largest banks
is Jewish. But does all of this affect antisemitism? In
Moshe Chaim's opinion, this has no effect, because no one
knows that these people are Jewish. "The greatest influence
on antisemitism in Italy is its Catholicism," he says. On
the Internet in Italy there is a site that lists all the
Jews in Italy and their details, under the title: "Know the
enemy."

Every time there is a special situation in Israel, Jews
abroad also suffer. "It is very easy to pick out a Jewish-
Italian last name," says Moshe Chaim. Several years ago some
Jewish families, including his, were forced to remove their
names from the phone book because of antisemitic harassment.
In the official Italian dictionary, they still list
antisemitic definitions of words like "rabino": (1.
Rabbi, 2. Thief) and "Ebreo": (1. Jew, 2. Curse).

In Italy you come across many works of Israeli artists, but
they present a distorted image of religious and chareidi
Jews in Israel. An Israeli author and an American Jewish
author, who write anti-religious literature, are well known
in Italy. Israeli anti-religious plays attract Italian
audiences en masse. This "art" reinforces the non-Jews'
antisemitism and also anti- religiosity amongst Italian
Jews. Considering the high assimilation rate in Italy, it is
not clear whether these "works of art" do not even increase
antisemitism amongst these "Jews."

For their part, most Jews prefer to conceal and ignore
antisemitic experiences, claims Moshe Chaim. Maybe in order
not to attract fire, maybe to "bury" the phenomenon hoping
it will go away or at least leave them alone. Moshe Chaim
says that four years ago he came to the synagogue on Rosh
Hashana and found its door black and he smelled a bad stench
of fire. Later he heard that at night a Molotov cocktail had
been thrown at the door. "But they never wrote about it in
the newspaper. They did not and will not try to advertise
this at all, out of fear that doing so would only increase
antisemitism. Jews here are scared that the more we talk
about Jews, the worse it is; the less we talk, the sooner
the Italians will forget about it. They think that this will
solve the problem. But they are not solving it, because
people are antisemitic in any case."

Moshe Chaim is a fiery 19-year-old, as we mentioned. His
words express his opinions only, and of course he did not
consult someone great in Torah or an authority. We have to
understand his approach as a reaction of a young Jew upset
about many aggravating experiences he has had, in a western
country that seems Democratic. "The truth is that to solve
this problem, instead of hiding ourselves, we should get
stronger and show who we are. But this is difficult, because
first of all we have a war against assimilation. We need to
fight ourselves, and only after this to show who we are.
Besides the fact that we are so small in Italy, even without
considering the assimilation problem, and all the more so
with it. So it is difficult anyway. But even so, it is not
right to hide things all the time. Big things do not happen
every day, but something [an antisemitic incident] occurs
every day to somebody in everyday life."

Moshe Chaim's Jewish Diary

The year he entered high school, Moshe Chaim's life changed.
In elementary school, the teachers called him Moshe and the
students were the same students he had studied with since
first grade. Everything flowed smoothly: "I did all kinds of
things because I'm Jewish, even though I didn't realize it.
But this did not go against anyone or have any
repercussions. Even if I knew that I was Jewish, I wouldn't
have felt that a Jew is something different. Besides my
Jewish name, my Judaism did not define me at all. I was
invited to friends' parties, and I would bring birthday
presents. It was a normal life, just like everyone else.

"Of course, I had all kinds of laws that the others did not
have, but I explained to myself that all parents have
different methods of child rearing. I have this kind of
education, and they have a different one. Here in Italy
there are many different approaches to raising children, and
my parents' approach was not so different from others. For
example, there are rules here about when to eat and how to
eat. I have friends who always had to eat lunch at 12 and
dinner at 7, and it was forbidden to be late by even one
minute. So I did not think: I'm Jewish, and other people are
not Jewish."

But when he got to high school, and was nicknamed "Jew" from
the first day, everything changed. The name Moshe Chaim was
almost a middle name because his first name was "Jew." They
would not say: "Invite Moshe," but "Invite the Jew."
"Whether I wanted it or not, I was a Jew. I couldn't change
myself. Actually, this caused me to strengthen my Judaism. I
started asking what a Jew is, and I understood that it is
not only I who keeps Shabbos, but there are a lot of other
people who keep Shabbos. I began to understand all kinds of
things that were not even questions before.

"I had my bar mitzvah without learning with a rabbi. I
learned my parsha at home by myself. I learned the
trop from a cassette. Not that I did not know what
Avrohom Ovinu is or what Torah is. My mother taught me Torah
every week, but I did not see myself as part of a greater
whole, but as a small unit."

He began writing a diary at that time, because he did not
have anyone to talk to. "Some of my good friends from
elementary school moved to a different city, and my Jewish
friends had made aliya. We had been three families,
and every Shabbos we would walk to them or they to us. I
lost other friends, because the year that you go up to high
school is for many Jewish families the year they decide to
leave. That way it's not traumatic, because in any case
they're switching schools."

What Was the Theme of the Diary?

"The first question was: why am I a Jew? This was formulated
after some time. I did not know at all why I was Jewish, and
I asked whether it was a privilege to be Jewish, because
here everyone says that a Jew is not good. Other questions:
Do I have a right to not write on Shabbos, while other
people don't? Do I have a right to tell people that I don't
eat that? I had to understand why me-yes, and others-no. I
began compiling all kinds of questions, and finally reached
the conclusion that I am a Jew, and I will remain a Jew, and
if they hate me and don't want me to be Jewish, that's
something in every person here. Everyone here is antisemitic
deep down. This is a collective feeling that people here
have, and since everyone has the same outlook, they feel
that it is correct. If only one person were antisemitic
everyone would say to him: That's not right. But here,
everyone speaks badly about the Jews, and no one tells him
he is wrong.

"There are so few Jews. It's almost a matter of mazal
to meet one, not to mention actually knowing a Jew. The
large communities meet amongst themselves, and the small
communities don't feel Judaism so much. So the non-Jews
don't have contact with Jews, and what's left is only
stories."

How do the Jews Live Inside and Outside?

"They act according to the slogan [that Mendelssohn, the
founder of the Reform movement originated]: `A Jew at home
and a man outside.' The Jews are scared to publicize their
Judaism. Many Jews keep kosher only at home. Outside they
may be careful not to eat pig, but they'll eat any other
meat. Or at home they keep Shabbos, they don't turn on
lights, but outside of the house they do. They make up
reasons and have them ready at hand for the non- Jews about
why they keep what they do.

"For example, why they don't eat pig--because it's not
healthy to eat. Anything that they don't manage to explain
to the non-Jews, they don't keep. This is very confusing for
young people. Recent generations are assimilating at a high
rate. Italian Judaism was religious until 150 years ago.
Nowadays we see a religious grandfather, the son of so-and-
so, and his grandchild is not at all religious. The common
attitude is that we have to be `worldly people.' `European.'
Shabbos and davening are ancient! They want to be
modern.

"But after all is said and done, Jews are actually missing
religion. Because the Jew can say that he wants to be
modern, not to be observant, but the non-Jews will always
remind him that he is Jewish. So we see a kind of paradox:
When something happens, whether in Italy or Israel, more
people come to the beis knesses, and Jews come back
to Judaism."

In University, How do People who Know You are Jewish
Relate to You?

"I have not spoken with a lot of students about my Judaism.
In the meantime there are no problems. I asked them not to
give exams on the chagim, and I hope that when this
is relevant, my request will be accepted. But it is
impossible to know. Two months ago, I asked a fellow student
to copy his notes. He agreed and I took them. When I wanted
to give back his notebook, he was not in the classroom and I
had to go. Later on he came to class, saw that I wasn't
there, and left me a message on my cell phone that I should
return his notebook immediately. I got back to him saying
that he should give me his address, and I will come to him.
But I did not say anything about his notebook; just about my
coming. So he left another message saying: I don't care
about you, I want my notebook right away. If you don't give
it back, you will regret it. The point in this story is that
he turned me into a thief. I am a Jew, so I am a thief.

"He told other students that the "Jewish thief" stole his
notebook. If he wanted to say that about me, that I'm a
thief, he could have said, "Moshe stole my notebook." But
this is not the point, as I said, but the fact that he has a
heritage of Jewish hatred at home [so he just saw me as part
of a type of Jew].

"In Italy there is also a culture of Holocaust denial. Many
people believe that the Holocaust was an illusion that the
Americans created, in order to serve as a pretext to fight
with Germany! And even if there actually was a Holocaust,
the Jews deserved it, because they were thieves and so on.
This is what that student surely had heard from his parents.
And now, that boy, who grew up on the lap of this culture
and met a Jew for the first time in his life at age 19,
immediately found truth in his parents words."

Is Moshe Chaim Your Only Name?

"The name Moshe Chaim is very burdensome for me in Italy. I
don't have a goyishe name. But I am proud of it. I
have always had problems because of this name. It's an
unusual name -- that's already a problem in Italy because
right off, you're not Italian. One professor would not
believe that I'm Italian when he saw the name on the roster.
I pulled out my passport and showed him that I am
Italian.

"Once I went to a hospital and when they saw the name Moshe
Chaim, they told us that the hospital does not treat non-
Italian citizens. My father took out his identity card and
they still said, "No, you are not Italian." If it had been
something worse, I could have died. Fortunately, it was just
an allergy. He called the police and they finally took me
in, but it is strange that this happened in a progressive,
modern, European country."

How Does the Catholic Church Relate to Jews Today?

"The higher up the ladder you go, the more diplomatic they
are. Lower down they show their true colors. The more
respectable ones are more careful, more sophisticated, but
the ones who are doing all the work are very antisemitic.
The Cardinal of Bologna said that Italy should close all the
borders to any non-Catholic who wants to become a citizen.
Non-Catholic citizens should be expelled slowly, so that
Italy will be pure in its Catholic heritage. He did not say
"Jews," but it is very clear who he meant. And this is what
the greatest of them says. What do the little ones say?
Antisemitism is a very common "subject" in the non-Jews'
religious studies.

"I used to go to a swimming pool, and several people stopped
coming because a Jew swam there. I asked one of them why he
doesn't come anymore, and he told me that their priest told
them that the Jews want the whole world to be Jewish, and so
the non-Jews should be careful to stay away from them and
not to speak with them. You never know what a Jew will say.
So they were careful, because I could make them evil Jews,
too. I was very insulted."

If Italian Jews Suffer So Much Blatant Antisemitism, Why
Don't They Emigrate, to Israel for Example?

"This does not seem like a solution to them. It is like
admitting defeat and that's difficult. But they must bring
Jewish education back to Italy. I see in France and other
countries that the Jews hide themselves less; they are more
Jewish. Here this would not especially help against
antisemitism, in my opinion, because when the media has an
opportunity to mention Jews, it is antisemitic and anti-
Israel. In other countries, it's not so much that way. Many
people think that the Jews have no place in the Italian
national structure. The most antisemitic places are the
churches. This is entrenched in their roots."